The Little Girl Who Drew a Home for Someone Yet to Arrive. 🤍🧡🤍
One winter morning, at the Palace of Enchanted Maps, Elif Ventaris was lying on the rug in the Hall of Great Maps.
Scattered around her were twelve colored pencils, three sheets of paper, a ruler, and a cookie with half of it missing.
The other half had disappeared under circumstances Elif did not consider necessary to explain.
The little girl was drawing with great concentration.
First, a mountain.
Then a river.
Then a bridge.
Then another bridge, because the first one looked a little lonely.
Finally, in a small meadow, she drew a cottage with an orange roof, two windows, and a purple door.
She stopped, studied it, and added a chimney.
“Done!”
Just then, Hanna came into the room.
She had her aviator goggles perched on her head, a notebook tucked under one arm, and the very serious expression of an explorer who had just discovered that there were no cookies left in her pocket.
“Elif! What are you doing?”
“A map!”
Hanna immediately sat down beside her.
“A map?! For an expedition?”
“Yes!”
“Where are we going?”
Elif pointed to the mountain.
“Here.”
“And after the mountain?”
“To the bridge.”
“And after the bridge?”
“To the other bridge.”
Hanna blinked.
“Why are there two bridges?”
Elif looked surprised.
“Well, Hanna! What if the first one wants to rest?!”
Hanna thought about this for a moment.
Then she opened her notebook.
“I need to write that down.”
🤍🧡🤍
After examining the map very carefully, Hanna noticed the little cottage.
“Elif, who lives here?”
“Nobody.”
“What do you mean, nobody?”
“Well… nobody yet.”
Hanna pushed her goggles up onto her forehead.
“Then why did you draw it?”
Elif looked up from her paper.
“What if somebody comes and doesn’t have anywhere to stay?”
Hanna looked at the cottage again.
“But we don’t even know who’s coming!”
“I know.”
“And what if nobody comes?”
Elif thought for a moment.
“Then the butterflies will have somewhere to sleep.”
Hanna nodded solemnly.
“Very good. A cottage with two purposes.”
She took out her pencil and wrote:
Accommodation available. Butterflies welcome.
The two little girls decided to take the map to the Star Observatory.
Elif walked ahead, holding the paper tightly against her chest.
Hanna followed with a notebook, a compass, and a cookie.
“Hanna?”
“Yes?”
“Where did you get that cookie?”
Hanna stopped.
“What cookie?”
Elif turned around.
Hanna was holding the very half that had disappeared from the rug.
They stared at each other.
“Ahaaaaa!” said Elif.
“It was all alone,” Hanna explained.
“And?”
“So I took it with me.”
“Why?”
“So it wouldn’t feel abandoned.”
Elif burst out laughing.
“Hannaaaa!”
“What? You make little houses for people who have nowhere to stay. I look after cookies!”
And, considering the matter settled, Hanna took a bite of the last piece of evidence.
At the Star Observatory, the sky stretched above them, filled with tiny lights.
Elif spread the map across a table.
Hanna adjusted her goggles and looked through the telescope.
“Elif! Come quickly!”
“What did you find?”
“A star!”
“Hanna, there are lots of stars!”
“Yes, but this one is right above your cottage!”
Elif climbed up and took a look.
The star shone peacefully.
The little girl smiled.
“Then that’s good.”
“What’s good?”
“Whoever comes will see the light.”
Hanna climbed down from the little stool.
“But what if they come during the day?”
Elif thought for a moment.
Then she picked up her yellow pencil and drew a sun above the roof.
“Done!”
Hanna examined the drawing.
“And what if it rains?”
Elif added an umbrella beside the door.
“Done!”
“And what if it snows?”
Elif drew a scarf.
“Done!”
“And what if they’re hungry?”
Elif drew a plate of cookies.
Hanna’s face lit up.
“Now that’s a proper map!”
That evening, as the two little girls were getting ready to leave, Hanna looked at the drawing one more time.
“Elif?”
“Yes?”
“Do you really think somebody will come to this cottage one day?”
Elif put her pencils back into her satchel.
“I don’t know, Hanna.”
“Then why did you make it so beautiful?”
Elif shrugged.
“Well… what if they do?”
Hanna smiled.
She carefully folded the map and placed it on the shelf beside the telescope.
Then she turned off the light.
Only the starlight remained in the Observatory.
And on the two little girls’ map, in a meadow drawn with colored pencils, stood a cottage with an orange roof, a purple door, a scarf, an umbrella, and a plate of cookies.
Nobody lived there.
Not yet.
🧡🤍🧡
The following morning, Hanna found a little note on the Observatory door.
Elif had written:
“Hanna, I forgot something! What if somebody comes with a brother? We need TWO little beds!”
Underneath, the little girl had drawn another bed.
Hanna looked at the note.
Then at the map.
Then at the shelf where the colored pencils were kept.
“Elifffff!”
From the other end of the corridor came a cheerful little voice.
“Yeeeees?”
“But what if THREE of them come?!”
There was silence.
Then hurried little footsteps.
Elif appeared in the doorway, her satchel open and all her colored pencils ready.
“Hanna! Get a BIGGER piece of paper!”
💜
Sometimes, a map doesn’t show only the places we already know.
Sometimes, it keeps a place for someone we haven’t met yet.
SERA SOL ARIN & VAEL
♡ THE LAND OF THE ILLUMINATED MAPS — Discover the wonderful land where the Ventaris, Scriptoria, and Solenara Labs lineages belong.
♡ THE VENTARIS FAMILY — Come meet our brothers and sisters, discover the stories we share, and visit the family that makes every adventure feel like home.
♡ SOLENARA LABS — Meet the extraordinary badgers whose ideas, inventions, and everyday adventures are part of our family.
♡ THE MAP ROOM — Return to the beginning and choose another journey through our House of Stories.
